Compared are the heavily censored US TV Version and the German TV Version.

German Version:

US Version:

The anime series Sailor Moon should ring a bell. The 200 episodes-series about a group of girls, who can perform magic tricks, fighting Evil is a classic which left a mark in the awareness of Japanese Productions (in both directions). No doubt about that. The series was a major success worldwide. But the German Version is quitr a surprise. In comparison to Saber Rider for instance, the German Version are based on the original Japanese master and the effort to keep it as close as possible to the Original was being made. Besides a few modification (please see below), the German Version is equal to the uncensored original Japanese Version.

Unlike the US North American Version.

The company DiC was calling the shots for the adaption of the first two seasons and Cloverway for the following two seasons. The final season 5 has never been released in the US, probably because of the controversial "Sailor Starlights", which also change the gender during their transformations. The realization is legen.... wait for it.... [sorry, wrong franchise -:)] The realization is legendary but it's also a perfect example for heavy censorship in animes these days. Especially season 1, produced by DiC, has a very dreadful rep and is the one with the most censorships being made. "Highlights" are the last two episodes of the first season. The remains of these episodes were put together to one single episode. Really preposterous.

The modifications / censorship

The

removal of scenes is the most common censorship. The length of the removed scenes is purely and simply impressive. Looks like the episodes were censored randomly. Besides the violence cuts, which could be expected, plot scenes, some gags and anything that could cause trouble with the FCC, was precautionally removed.

The meaning of scenes was changed very often, too. In most cases, the lines in the dub are softer but modifications of the footage were also being made. As a result of that, a scene might have an entirely different meaning than the exact same scene in the Original.

Americanization describes the pathetic attempt to make the series less Japanese. Not only the character names are different (please see below for details) but the Japanese ideographs (Kanji, Katakana, Hiragana) are wiped out as well. Further differences are renamed foot (but it still looks the same which is quite hilarious). But the best thing is: anything takes place in the US, Tokyo isn't being mentioned for once. These modifications aren't going to be mentioned anymore because it happens too often. Exeptions are extraordinary examples for that.
Examples:

German Version:

US Version:

Images were censored, especially when it became to revealing. This also and particularly concerns the transitions (except Sailor Moon's) where curves were removed like there were no tomorrow.
Examples:

German Version:

US Version:

CGI was added to a lot of scenes which doesn't contain any CGI in the Original Version. Listing all the CGI of any episode would break the mold but I can assure you: if there's a conspicuous CG shot, it wasn't in the Original Version.
Examples:

German Version:

US Version:

Transitions were added digitally as well. Recognizing them is a piece of cake because they're obviously a break of style and they're supposed to cover up the cuts. And here also counts: listing any transition would break the mold, so I'm not going to do that.
Examples:

Unfortunately there are some

removed episodes, too. From 46 Original episodes of season 1, only 40 were left over. The removed episodes Nr. 2, 5, 6, 20, 42 and the episodes 44 and 45 were so heavily cut that it was one single episode in the end.
In the second season, episode 67 was being removed. (Note: The German Vesion lacks episode 89 but it only consists of stock footage and is hated by the fanbase, so it's not a big loss at all.)

Gender change is a popular method to hide homosexuality. In this case, two characters are being affected: Zoicite (in Germany Zoisite) in season 1 is actually a man. But to avoid his homosexual relationship with Kunzite, he's a woman now. The second character is Fish Eye in season 4. Though he acts very feminine, he's actually a male (and he's also gay). A further victim of a gender change is Zirconia in season 4 for instance. And if such a censorship wasn't possible, the status of their relationship was being changed. The lovers Uranus and Neptun e.g. are cousins now.
The

modification of the audio track is no censorship in the proper sense but a lot of atmosphere gets lost. The reason for that is pretty simple: the US Version takes a pass on the original music and noises - a new audio track was being made. It works for the noises but it doesn't for the music. The original music is way better.

"Sailor Says" is a segment which exists exclusively in the US Version. If you know Filmation's "Masters Of The Universe" (good old times), the last scene should be look very familiar because it also with a scene where the kids were supposed to learn a lesson. This could be realized with stock footage.

Different names for the attacks and transformations were used, despite the fact that the names in the Original Version are English as well. But I must say that someof the German names were just made up, too. Here some examples of attacks, an entire list would be too long.

Original Version:

US Version:

German Version:

Moon Tiara Action

Moon Tiara Magic

Mondstein, flieg und sieg

Shabon Spray

Mercury Bubbles Blast

Seifenblasen, fliegt

Fire Soul

Mars Fire Ignite

Feuerball, flieg

Supreme Thunder

Supreme Thunder Crash

Donnerschlag, flieg

Cresent Beam

Venus Cresent Beam Smash

Halbmondstrahl, flieg

Change of names affects all characters. Here's a list of characters with more than one appearance in season 1. Find the original name in brackets if the German name is different.

German Version:

US Version:

Bunny(Usagi) Tsukino

Serena Tsukino

Mamoru Chiba/Tuxedo Mask

Darien Shields/Tuxedo Mask

Ami Mizuno

Amy Anderson

Rei Hino

Reye Hino

Makoto Kino

Lita Kino

Minako Aino

Mina Aino

Luna

Luna

Artemis

Artemis

Königin Perillia(Beryl)

Queen Beryl

Königin Metallia

Negaforce

Jedite (Jadeite)

Jadeite

Neflite(Nephrite)

Neflyte

Zoisite(Zoicite)

Zoycite

Kunzite

Malachite

Naru Osaka

Molly Baker

Motoki Furuhata

Andrew

Umino Gurio

Melvin

Shingo Tsukino

Sammy Tsukino

Ikkuko Tsukino

Mom

Kenji Tsukino

Dad

Mika Kayama

Mika Cassidy

Haruna Sakurada

Patricia Haruna

Reika

Rita

Yuuichirou Kumada

Chad

It's also worth being mentioned that the German was being modified here and there, too. Zoisite e.g. is a woman as well (I guess the channel changed that) and attempts to avoid words like "kill", "die" etc. were being made, which causes an odd result in some scenes. But still: these modifications are pretty harmless in comparison to the DiC Version. Comparisons of the dialogs with subtitled Japanese episodes proof how close to the Original the German dialogs are.

Only the comparison of the first episode mentions the differences of the opening and final credits, the title of the episodes, the preview of the next episode and the "Sailor Says". All these elements are being ignored in the calculation of the different lengths. Basically, cuts and modifications are the two issues that might have happened. Sometimes it's only of them, sometimes both at the same time. The time index is based on the German Version.

Episode 19: Molly's Folly

Bunny is really worried about Naru because she's still in love with Nephrite's alias Masato Sanjouin. She and her friends agree to tell Naru about Nephrite. Meanwhile Queen Beryl is pretty upset because Nephrite doesn't bother to appear for the report. Zoisite tells him but loses her feeling of triumph when she gets to know that Nephrite is looking for the silver crystal as well to humiliate her. He creates a black crystal to find the sliver one but for his astonishment he sees Naru in him. Meanwhile Kunzite calms Zoisite down and they make a plan for Nephrite. They intend to set a Youma on him as a snitch. After a shortwhile, Bunny spilled the ugly truth about Sanjouin to Naru by telling her he's dangerous. But Nephrite lures Naru in the park and makes her trust him again. He listens very carefully when she Naru describes a new piece of jewel in her mom's shop. He suspects Naru's talking about the silver crystal and lets her steel it but it is a lead balloon. The Sailor warriors show up instead, reveal Nephrite's true identity to Naru and intend to finish Nephrite off. But Naru says she knew he was wicked but she loved him anyway. That's why she protects him. The crystal reacts to Naru which makes Nephrite wonder. Suddenly the Youma pops up and wants to kill him because he'sa traitor. Nephrite protects Naru and Sailor Moon destroys the Youma. Nephrite leaves, claims he didn't have any feelings for Naru and leaves her back with Naru, who is familiar with the ugly truth now: Nephrite belongs to the dark side.

Running time German episode: 18:25
Running time US episode: 17:39

That means: minus the non-existent scenes in the Original Version, the US Version lacks 50 seconds.

[00:00]-[00:02]
[-2 sec]Shortened sceneExtended shot of the sky before the the pan shot of the outdoor pool.

In the US Version, Naru knows Nephrite's name in one scene but she doesn't in another one, until Sailor Moon finally mentions it to her. This is pretty interesting because Naru still thinks as Sanjouin about him in the Original Version until Sailor Moon tells his real name. And it's getting worse. Naru still acts surprised when she gets to know Nephrite's real name.

[00:50]-[00:56]
[-6 sec]Shortened sceneBunny is so shocked about Naru being in an adult relatinship that she didn't realize how she got hit by a beach ball and drowns (but she surfaces in the end).

[01:28]-[01:30]Modified sceneWhen Naru tells Bunny some details about her feelings for Masato Sanjouin, a huge drop of sweat on Bunny's head has been spotted on out.

German Version

US Version

[01:31]-[01:33]
[-2 sec]Shortened sceneMissing shot of Bunny looking at Naru before she tries to appeal to her conscience.

[01:50]-[02:10]
[-20 sec]Shortened sceneThe conversation between Bunny, Ami, Rei and Luna about the situation with Naru is DESTINCTLY longer. Bunny is worried because she knows about Naru's feelings for Sanjouin. Rei snappily says they were supposed to tell Naru about him for that exact reason. Ami warns Rei not to start a fight and asks Bunny what she thought. Bunny agrees that Naru ought to know the truth. Then Luna asks how she intended to do so.

[02:20]-[02:26]Modified sceneDifferent footage of the Kingdom of Darkness.

[05:09]-[05:13]Modified sceneWhen Nephrite looks at the crystal, Naru's picture dulls after some time. But not in the US Version because the US Version contains a freeze frame here until the change of scenary.

German Version

US Version

[10:40]-[10:47]
[-7 sec]Shortened sceneOne of the moths at the park comes to close to a UV lamp and burns. It's really sad that this particular scene is missing because it lowers the dramatic of the scene at the park, which points out danger for Naru.